


Threvzeht Jevia

by supertrashcompactor



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Romance, Maybe some tears, happy tears, special guest star: Neil deGrasse Tyson
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-27
Packaged: 2018-06-02 04:54:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6551869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supertrashcompactor/pseuds/supertrashcompactor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kara deserves her day. Her special day. She deserves a tower of cupcakes, and a pile of presents. She deserves to have this piece of home. She deserves so much more, but this is something they can give her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not a Krypton expert (just an enthusiast), but I used old comics, and online resources to make this as authentic and factual as possible. I hope everyone enjoys.

Kara  wrote three columns of Kryptonian characters in Carter’s notebook. She double checked that they were legible, and not the mess her teachers had often commented on, and slid it back to him. “You ready for these?”

Carter shifted in his chair, and looked over the page carefully. “Vowels? Whoa, these are all vowels?”

Kara nodded, and pointed to the first column. “Ya, but you’ll get it don’t worry,” she reassured him with a bright smile. “So, these are the basic ones. Then diphthongs, rhotic vowels, and the Kryptonian equivalent of Y, and all the new sounds you can make with it,” she paused to look out the penthouse windows. “You sure you want to spend your Saturday doing this. It’s nice out. We can wait til a rainy day if you want.”

Carter shook his head, as he looked over what Kara had written. “No way, Krypton lessons are the best part of the week. Going outside is overrated. Besides,” he added, gesturing around the penthouse. “With all this glass, I get enough vitamin D.”

Kara laughed, and they spent the next hour huddled together at the dining room table. She was amazed, and proud, by how quickly Carter was learning. She found herself closing her eyes, a smile tugging on her lips as she listened to him. It was only the alphabet, but she hadn’t heard her language spoken without malice, since her last day on Krypton. The AI of her mother didn’t count. It sounded robotic, foreign. But Carter. Sweet, smart Carter, rolled his Rs perfectly, and it sounded, just for a moment, like Krypton still existed.

“How was that?”

Kara opened her eyes, and threw an arm around his shoulders. “That was amazing, buddy.”

Carter beamed. “Amazing enough to skip ahead?”

Kara smiled. “Skip ahead to what? Pronouns? We’ve got a lot of those too. You haven’t had enough for today?”

He shook his head. “No way, but can we maybe learn something cooler?” He asked, excitement growing. “Like how did you measure things? What’s the Kryptonian equivalent of a pound? Or how did you tell time? Was time the same on Krypton? Did you have clocks?”

Kara nearly used her super strength to keep Carter from bouncing out of his seat. “Yes,” she laughed. “We had clocks, but they were probably a little different. We had a hundred minutes in an hour.”

“Really?”

She nodded, and picked up a pencil. “Alright, so a second on Earth, I’m told by Kal, that huge nerd, is equivalent to what we called a _thrib_.” She started writing it down in Carter’s notebook, as he sat riveted. “And the plural would be…”

Carter tapped his pencil on the table as he thought it over. “With an O, right? _Thribo_?"

“You are absolutely right,” Kara said with a proud smile, as she flipped to a new page. “So a hundred _thribo_ equals one _dendahr,”_ she explained, writing as she spoke. “And a hundred _dendahro_ equals one _wol_.”

Carter held up a hand, and sat back. “Whoa, wait. So those are like second, minute, hour. Your hour is ten thousand seconds,” he paused to reach down beside his chair, and pull a calculator from his backpack. “Which equals...two point-seven-eight hours on Earth. Whoa, that's a long hour.”

“But,” Kara continued, drawing Carter's attention back to her writing. “Ten _wolo_ equals one _zentiahr_ , which is a day. So a day on Krypton was actually only how many Earth hours?”

Carter's tongue peaked out as he typed the numbers excitedly into his calculator. “It's only twenty seven-point-seven-eight hours. Okay, but how many _zentiahro,_ ” he pronounced carefully. “In a...what's the word for week?”

“ _Fanff_ ,” Kara provided. “And it's six. Six days in a week, and seventy three _zentiahro_ , a little over twelve _fanffo,_ in a _lorakh._ We'll do names of the months later,” she added. “And there's six _lorakho_ in an _amzeht,_ so that’s four hundred and thirty-eight _zentiahro._ ”

Carter had his tongue poking out, and his calculator back on in a flash, scribbling out his math furiously. “So four hundred and thirty eight days a year, but your days are longer than our days, so really, that's five hundred and six point nine-four Earth days. Whoa.”

Carter flipped to the next page, and Kara watched his expression shift from fascinated to contemplative. “What’s up?” She asked.

Carter stopped writing and looked up at her. “So wait. Are you twenty-four in Earth years or Krypton years? Because if it’s Krypton years then you’re actually thirty-three. So then do you age slower? I’m thirteen. I would only be like nine on Krypton, but would I look thirteen, or would I look like I looked when I was nine?”

Kara held up a hand to stop his barrage of questions. “Carter slow down. We didn’t age slower. We age pretty much the same as humans. I’m twenty-four Earth years old, almost twenty-five now, approximately.”

Carter tilted his head. “Approximately?”

Kara fidgeted with the pencil in her hand. “Well I don’t exactly have a birthday here, so we just always celebrate the day I landed on earth. Alex calls it my ‘Earth’-day. I was a little over nine when Krypton-” she paused to take a breath. “When Krypton was destroyed, so I was about thirteen on Earth, and so we just started counting from the day I landed.”

“When was your birthday on Krypton?”

Kara gave him a tight smile, and reached out for his notebook, writing down six words. “These are the names of the months. I was born on the forty sixth day of _Norzehk_ 9990\. I left Krypton on the thirty ninth day of _Ogtahl_ 10000\. That was the last name day I got to celebrate,” she finished quietly.

Carter reached over and laid a gentle hand on Kara’s forearm. “We don’t have to talk about it anymore,” he offered. “I didn’t mean to make you sad.”

“It’s okay, buddy,” she reassured him. “You didn’t make me sad. It's just,” she started, doodling in the margin of the notebook. “I know the Danverses were trying to make me feel welcome, and give me as human an existence as possible. Make me feel like I was a part of their family, their human family. I know they were doing their best, and I am so, so grateful. But to me the day I landed on Earth, despite twenty four years in the Phantom Zone, feels like the same day Krypton was destroyed, and despite cake and presents, I just couldn’t really celebrate.”

Carter nodded soberly. “I get it,” he said, looking over at Kara thoughtfully. “Why don't we just pick another day? The day you met mom, or the day you became Supergirl. Or you can share my birthday, if you want. We can just have a huge party,” he went on, spreading his arms for emphasis. “A giant chocolate cake with so many candles you'll have to freeze breath them.”

Kara gave him a tight squeeze around the shoulders. “Thanks Carter, but you deserve a day all your own, and you know, on Krypton we didn’t celebrate our actual birthday.”

“No?” Carter asked, leaning into the hug, putting his head on Kara’s shoulder. “What did you celebrate?”

“The day we were named. You actually celebrated your mom on the date of your birth, because, you know, she did all the work. It was kinda like a Mother’s Day.”

Carter chuckled. “That makes sense. So when did you get your party?”

“Well, a week after a baby is born on Krypton there’s a ceremony. There’s some religious aspects, and their name is announced, making them a member of the house. It’s called your _threvzeht_ , nameday, and it’s pretty close to a birthday party here. Food and presents, and games. People come over. Did I ever tell you how I got my eyebrow scar?”

Carter pulled back, to look at Kara’s face. “How?”

Kara smiled. “It was my fourth nameday, and my aunt, I was led to believe she was off world, but she was actually there waiting to surprise me. She jumped out from behind a couch, and yelled. _Threvzeht jevia!_ Which is ‘happy nameday’ in case you're wondering. And no there's no song," she added. "So my aunt jumped out, and of course, I freaked out, and screamed, and ran, and tripped, bouncing my face of the corner of a table.”

Carter laughed. “So you’ve always been a klutz.”

Kara nodded sharply. “Yes. But luckily now, when I bounce my face off things, the things break.” She sat up suddenly, her super ears picking up the whirring of the penthouse elevator. “Your mom’s home, so let’s pack up. Next weekend we start on those pronouns. There’s no avoiding them.”

Carter started putting things away in his backpack. "Alright," he conceded, zipping it up. Standing, he leaned back over to give Kara a fierce hug. “You know Kara, we can make any day you want your nameday,” he said, pulling away. “You should get to have your day.”

She immediately pulled him back into her arms, astonished and overwhelmed. “Thanks buddy, but with you and your mom, I really have more than enough to celebrate.”

 

* * *

 

Carter watched Supergirl fly by his window. Slipping out of bed, and his room, he headed down the hall, and knocked gently on the master bedroom door. “Mom, are you up?”

Cat opened the door a moment later, tightening her robe. “Carter? What’s the matter?” She asked, instinctively bringing the back of her hand to his forehead.

Carter pulled back. “I’m not sick, mom. I just saw Kara leave.”

“It’s just a fire,” Cat reassured him. “Nothing too dangerous.”

“That’s good. Well not really,” he corrected. “I just needed to talk to you about something, but Kara can't be here.”

Concerned, Cat placed a hand on her sons shoulder and pulled him into her room. She steered him to the edge of the bed. “What is it, sweetheart? You talk to Kara about everything.”

Carter scooted further onto the mattress. “It’s nothing bad. It's just- did you know that Kara doesn't have a real birthday?”

Cat sat next to him, and nodded slowly. “She's mentioned it, but never gone into detail.”

Carter picked at the top of the duvet. “She talked about it today. She got so sad, mom. She tried not to let it show, but she misses her home. She does all of our traditions, but she doesn’t have any of hers. She just keeps them to herself. At least with us, she should...she should be able to celebrate her own stuff.”

Cat nodded, eyes down, as she played with the hem of her robe. “I asked her at Christmas, if there was something she wanted to incorporate into our celebrations. Considering we’re not exactly religious, and Kara’s faith is very important to her, I thought she might like to observe some of her customs, but being Kara-”

“She didn’t want to be an inconvenience,” Carter finished.

Cat sighed, and putting an arm around Carter, pulled him close. “No matter how many times I tell her she isn’t.”

Carter lifted his head, from his mother’s shoulder. “Maybe this time we show her.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just want to thank everyone for all the kind, lovely comments and kudos. It is very much appreciated :)

Cat hadn't been in a lecture hall in nearly thirty years. She hadn't been back to the NCU campus since Carter was little. When had they renamed the journalism building in her honour? It couldn't have been more than a decade. Whatever the time line, these chairs were just as uncomfortable as she remembered.

Carter didn't seem to have a problem, leaning forward, listening intently. Cat had zoned out a half hour ago, when the topic of multiverses had come up. She wasn't sure what that was, but it did bring her joy to know that there was more than one Cat Grant out there.

 She busied herself on her phone for the next hour, grateful they had sat in the back. A few emails were answered, headlines were checked. Supergirl had apparently been out and about this evening. She'd stopped an armed robbery, and there was even a picture of her carrying a bag of groceries as she helped an old lady cross the street. Cat smiled, and messaged it to Kara. _Business slow?_

The response was immediate. _It can't all be fighting aliens, and daring rescues. She did feed me though. Maybe I'll just help cool, old ladies from now on._

 Y _ou carried her groceries all the way home?_

 W _e had a nice chat, and she made me spaghetti. Said she thought I was getting skinny. Even made me brownies to take home. I saved you guys some. They're awesome._

 Cat shook her head and smiled. _You're ridiculous._

  _You love me. How's the lecture?_

  _I'm bored, but Carter seems to be enjoying it. I think it's almost over, we seem to be at the end of the question period. I'll let you know when we're on our way home, and yes, I love you._

_Okay. See you at home. Love you too xoxo_

Still smiling, Cat tucked her phone in her purse, as everyone stood to clap, and began to leave.

Carter turned to her as he picked his backpack up off the floor. “Are you really gonna ask Neil deGrasse Tyson to help us, mom?”

Cat let her purse settle in the crook of her elbow. “Absolutely. As much as I love to be involved in your interests, sweetheart, I did not subject myself to this purely for my own edification. Now let's go see if your favourite astrophysicist can help,” she said, leading Carter down the lecture hall stairs. They waited at the bottom, Cat tapping her foot, occasionally hearing ‘is that Cat Grant?’ as people filtered past them.

As the door clanged shut behind the last of them, Cat approached, Carter only a step behind. “Dr. Tyson, my son and I have a proposition for you.”

“If you want me to start writing the Tribune’s Sunday crossword, Ms. Grant,” he replied, as he finished packing his things, and turned to face her. “The answer is yes. They’ve gotten way too easy.”

Cat shook her head. “I think you’ll find this much more interesting,” she said, looking over at Carter, who snapped out of his amazement, to fumble with his backpack, and tug his notebook free.

Carter cleared his throat. “It’s really awesome to meet you, Dr. Tyson,” he managed. “I’m Carter.”

Cat smiled, proud of her polite, little man.

“It’s awesome to meet you, Carter,” Dr. Tyson replied, shaking Carter’s hand. “I noticed you paid much closer attention than your mom.”

Carter snickered as Cat rolled her eyes. “Yes well, we can’t all be space junkies and NASA enthusiasts.”

Dr. Tyson laughed. “Fair enough. Now, I’m intrigued. What’s this proposition you have for me?”

Carter opened his notebook, and held it out, watching as Dr. Tyson took it, eyes widening. “What is this?” He asked, stunned, looking between them.

“Kryptonian,” Carter supplied, bouncing. “Supergirl is teaching me. She’s kind of a... friend of the family.”

Cat fought the smile that was threatening. “She is a...friend, and this little project is for her, so your discretion would be appreciated.”

Dr. Tyson flipped through the pages of Carter’s note book, his eyes somehow managing to grow wider. “This is amazing. You can read this? Are these dates?”

Carter opened his mouth to answer, but Cat cut him off. “So you’ll help us?”

Dr. Tyson, nodded furiously. “I don’t know even know what it is, or if I can help you, but I’m in.”

“You’ll be compensated for your time, of course,” Cat said, pulling her chequebook from her purse. She wrote furiously, signing her name with a flourish. “I’m sure this will cover it.”

Dr. Tyson took the offered cheque hesitantly. “Ms. Grant, I’ll help Supergirl for free, you don’t need to pay me,” he looked down at the cheque and back up, shocked. “And this is certainly too much.”

Cat dismissed his objections with a wave. “Take it, get some more ties with planets one them, buy a telescope, go to the moon. Consider it a donation to the planetarium. Carter and I certainly enjoy going when we’re in Metropolis.”

“I still can't accept this much money, Ms. Grant.”

Cat sighed. “Of course you can. I'm sure you can find some use for it it.”

“But I haven't done anything yet, and I don't know if I can help you.”

Cat's most bored expression slipped into place. “Do you get funding only when you publish your results?”

“You should just take it, Dr. Tyson,” Carter interjected. “No one gets anywhere arguing with my mom.”

The physicist heeded Carter’s advice, folding the cheque carefully and slipping it into his pocket. “I do have a number of programs for kids I’d like to get up and running. so I, and a future generation of scientists thank you, Ms. Grant.”

Cat hummed. “You’re welcome. Now just solve our little problem.”

“What exactly is this problem?” He asked, looking between mother and son, and back to the notebook.

“We need to figure out Supergirl’s birthday,” Carter answered, stepping forward. “I know the date on Krypton,” he continued, as Dr. Tyson set the notebook down on a nearby table. Carter flipped back a page. “But we don’t know the date on Earth, and,” he went on, pointing at a few columns of Kryptonian characters. “This is how they told time. This is her birthday on Krypton. This is the date Krypton exploded, but without a corresponding date on Earth, I couldn’t figure it out.”

Dr. Tyson wiggled his mustache in contemplation, as he retrieved a pen and notepad from his briefcase. “I can’t believe I’m writing actual Kryptonian,” he said, looking down at Carter with a huge grin. “You know how cool this is right?” 

Carter grinned back. “Oh yeah."

**Author's Note:**

> Find me over on tumblr at: supertrashcompactor.tumblr.com. I'm always up for some prompts or even to chat. Don't be shy.


End file.
